During organized or professional tennis matches, a tennis player uses a towel between most points. Typically, as the player returns to court after the changeover, a ball boy is handed the towel by the player at the far end of the court. The ball boy, in the absence of a dedicated or specified structure, randomly places it somewhere, retrieves the towel when signaled by the player between points, hands it to the player for use, receives it back, where the ball boy again arbitrarily places the towel at a spot at the back of the court, either on some backdrop, a sponsor display, a line umpire chair, a display clock (such as Rolex®), or even on the court surface itself, as but a few examples.
The ball boy typically stands in readiness, however, at a location away from the placement of the towel. To retrieve the towel for the player, the ball boy must first run to the line umpire chair before heading to the players, which results in lost time. The ball boy must also return to the ready position outside the playing area as quickly as possible, and therefore has less time to properly place a towel on the chair.
The ball boy is typically also instructed to spread out the towel before handing it to the player, shortening the time the player will need to dry himself off. This may require some delay in handing the towel to the player, as the towel is seldom placed such that it is neatly spread out between points. Even during the same match, at each end of the court, the towel may be in different locations and, as the ball boys are typically rotated, the towel will further be found randomly in more than one spot. In this case, the player will not immediately know which ball boy to signal when the towel is desired, resulting at times in delay between points. The placement of the towel on a line umpire chair also requires the ball boy to maneuver around the line umpire who stands right in front of the chair. The chair may further sit within a closed box, further adding a degree of awkwardness in placing the towel neatly on the chair.
In terms of appearance, a sweat drenched towel in full view of television viewers, often in close ups and lying in rumpled disarray in any of the aforementioned locations, is not aesthetically pleasing and reduces the attractiveness of tennis as a global sport.
Most professional tennis tournaments are played outdoors. Some, such as the Australian Open during summer months, can reach on court temperatures exceeding 40° C. (104° F.). During changeovers, many players require shading from the sun and ice packs, so severe is the effect of the heat. Profuse sweating is a typical result. Heat affected players may take more time between points in order to recover, causing stoppage and delays in play and increasing match length.
Furthermore, the placement of a towel on a chair results in the line umpires sitting on a chair which had a sweat soaked towel laying upon it, and further results in the players wiping their faces with a towel which was lying on a chair which line umpires sit on during changeovers. In hot weather, this is especially unhygienic.
Finally, as throwing a towel upon a chair or back drop, where it lies in rumpled disarray during play, is not aesthetically pleasing to both live spectators and television viewers, the solution to this problem presents unique advertising opportunities to sponsors and tennis tournaments, as described in the instant application.